Rebuilding needed at St Mary’s

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IT TOOK ONE MINUTE AND 50 seconds for the first “Harry and Jim” chant to echo round St Mary’s. Twelve minutes for Southampton’s defence to unravel under pressure. Sixty minutes before they figured out how to stop Charlton Athletic running rampant. And it may take a month of frantic transfer activity before Southampton improve, because five months, two wins, three managers and countless coaches into the season, they are not getting any better.

Is the present squad good enough to stay up? In his programme notes, Rupert Lowe, the chairman, described it as “solid”. After 90 mostly entertainment-free minutes, Harry